He was startled awake. He looked around, not knowing where he was. Slowly he recognized his surroundings. He was in the darkness of his den. He reached up behind him and felt the hard stone of the wall. He dug his claws into the thick coverings on the floor. The rich smell of cedar and pine was still thick in the air. He looked around and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the den, he saw the two forms of Achelois and Nicolas sleeping in their respective sections of the den.
He tried to think, but thoughts came slowly. He shook his head from side-to-side to clear some of the mental cobwebs from his consciousness. What day is it? This was day three of their three-day test. The thought filled him with dread but elation as well. After today at least their wait would be over.
He lay back down on the warm carpet with his claws folded behind his head. He stared at the black ceiling of the warm den. He tried to go back to sleep but sleep wouldn’t come. He didn’t feel tired, but he didn’t feel wide awake either. It felt as if he had woken up from a dream that he couldn’t remember but his mind was working furiously trying to. He closed his eyes but that didn’t help induce sleep either. Why did I wake up? The thought was a nagging sensation in the back of his mind, like the buzzing of a stubborn insect that he couldn’t kill but it wouldn’t fly away either.
He opened his eyes and propped himself up on his elbows looking around the deep darkness of the den. Nicolas and Achelois were still asleep. Their even breathing was reassuring, and he laid back down listening to the calm of the other two werewolves. He closed his eyes and tried to match his breathing with theirs. He tried to relax and focus all of his attention on the blissful emptiness of sleep. But sleep remained outside of his reach.
He tried for long minutes to recapture the rest that had been stolen from him, but nothing he tried seemed to work. In frustration he shot his eye lids open and sat up. He hated when he was woken up and couldn’t go back to sleep. He stopped and considered the thought. Why do I feel like I’ve been woken up? No one else was awake in the den. He couldn’t hear any sounds except the deep relaxed breathing of the other two werewolves. So why did he feel that way?
That line of thinking seemed to trigger something else in his mind. The unremembered dream coalesced into a blob of dark feelings. He studied the knot of feelings but couldn’t make any sense of them. The image of a suddenly approaching dark storm formed in his mind. He had seen storms like that many times in his forest. He knew that when the storm head reached him, he would be drenched by the heavy down pour in seconds. At those times he had always had to seek the shelter of his burrow. Now however, he wasn’t sure what to do. The buzzing in the back of his mind grew more insistent though with each passing second.
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William made a choice and if the others have a problem with it than let that be just one more grievance they have with him. He smiled ruefully to himself. Besides, if he couldn’t get any sleep why should anyone else get to?
He went over to Achelois and nudged her in her lower leg with his foot. Her eyes shot open and she nearly jumped up to a full attack posture. He noticed that her tail was arched up behind her proudly stiff. She was in full attack mode. Without knowing he had done it he found that he had backed away a few steps and now held his hands in the air in a defensive gesture.
Achelois took a few seconds to recognize what had just happened. She looked at William from head to toe and seemed to relax visibly. She looked around the den. William saw her look over at the still sleeping form of Nicolas. She focused on William. “What is it?”
William scratched at his head. He didn’t know what to tell her. The idea that he had woke her up just because he couldn’t go back to sleep was worse than stupid. He just didn’t feel right. Of course, that could be caused by the deer he had eaten yesterday too. The buzzing in his head was almost an ache now.
“I don’t feel right.” William looked down at his feet.
Achelois stood still her tail had lowered but it was still arched high in the air. “What do you mean, you don’t feel right?” Her voice was cold but it carried with it an undertone of concern.
William looked up and made eye contact with her. He could make out her features in the deep dark of the den but her eyes seemed to radiate their own light. He stared into the deep gold of her eyes and said the first thing that came to mind. “I have a bad feeling about something. I don’t know what it is or why, but something isn’t right.” Hearing his own hushed words in the dark cemented the idea in his head. He had been woken up. Something was wrong and it was up to him to do something about it.
Achelois nodded. She turned toward the form of Nicholas who was still sleeping in the darkness. “You had better wake him up. All three of us should go and see what it is that is bothering you.”
William stepped over to Nicholas. He still wasn’t sure about this whole thing, but Achelois didn’t question why he had this feeling. If she didn’t think he was crazy than he didn’t feel too bad about waking up the blonde. Like with Achelois he gently nudged Nicolas in the lower leg with his foot. He stirred but didn’t wake up. Looking down with disappointment on his face he kicked him a little harder. Nicolas responded by rolling over onto his side. William didn’t want to hurt him but he needed for him to wake up, now. He put his hands on his hips and looked down at the sleeping werewolf. He saw Nicolas’ tail sticking out behind him. He placed his foot on the appendage and applied ever increasing weight to the tail. Nicolas stirred awake. When his eyes opened the pain seemed to catch up with him, he yelped out into the darkness and swung his arms at William who jumped out of the way of the attack.
“What the hell do you want?” It was not exactly a yell but it was close.